Hey Sweetie!
Busy, busy today! When I went to bed last night and set my alarm, it said 9:14 until my alarm would go off. Ridiculous, right? I tried to read for a bit but fell completely asleep in moments, then woke up once or twice when Lola was really restless (which surprised me, I thought she would be tired from the ride yesterday!), had some weird dreams, but didn’t wake up until the alarm went off! Obviously, I needed it! Had a bit of a scare first thing, though, when I went out to feed the horses, the gate on the electric fence was on the ground and the horses were gone! I called but got no answer, so I jumped into my truck and started heading to the back of the campground, and there they were, just meandering up from the trailhead! I thought they’d be on the grass eating, but they evidently decided to explore the woods, too! I led them home and gave them breakfast, and tightened the handle on the gate. It was really windy last night, so I though maybe the handle had swung loose, so I tightened that up. After breakfast, I saddled up Flash, and I was going to meet my new friends from Alabama and ride with them, but I missed them, so I ended up with the group ride, catching them just as they were heading out, I only just had enough time to get Lola in her orange vest and catch up with them. It was another lovely ride, a lot of variety of trail surfaces, but this was a group that really wanted to move out, so Flash got a good workout whenever we were on roads where they could stretch out. There was another dog with us, Waylon, and they got along fine, but at one point, one horse kicked at Lola because she got too close (she’s gotten over her fear of being in a pack of horses, too much so), so it was a good lesson. She didn’t get hurt, but she spent the rest of the ride paralleling us in the woods rather than being on the trail with us, so lesson learned! When we got back to camp, I called out Apollo’s name, and when he whinnied back, it came from the barn rather than the pen! Lo and behold, the gate handle was on the ground again, and upon further examination I found the ground clamp had come undone, so there was no current going through the fence, so that explained part of it. I fetched Apollo out of the barn (my neighbor put him away for me, thank you very much!), and I rinsed down Flash and put him away, then saddled up Apollo for the second ride of the day. After all, I came to ride, so I’m going to ride! I had mentioned to one of the guides that I kept seeing this sign for the waterfall and cave but hadn’t been there yet, so it was decided the afternoon ride would take us there. Another lovely ride, and the cave and the waterfall were beautiful, and Apollo had to work hard at keeping up with all the gaited horses, which was a good workout for him. Got back with him, rinsed him down and put him away, gave them some hay, put my tack away, emptied the back of the truck with the feed I bought yesterday, got that put away, cleaned up the manure in the paddock area for the first time in a couple of days, I’ve been so busy! Headed off to the dining hall for dinner, met up with my Alabama friends and got their contact info, something I should have done this morning, though from what I heard they had quite a rough ride, so I’m guessing I was better off on the group ride anyway. Tried my hand at a game of poker (the poker run kept getting postponed so we had it tonight), lost with a pair of twos, then headed back to camp to feed everyone and put the horses’ blankets on. Rain is coming in, and colder weather, highs only in the mid-50’s tomorrow, quite a plunge from the upper 70’s we’ve been having, going to have to wear my long underwear tomorrow! Anyway, even though it’s not even 8:00 yet, I’m going to take my shower, maybe watch an hour of TV while I have some Sleepytime tea, then head to bed again nice and early. I took Lola on the morning ride, not the afternoon ride, but I’m hoping it’s enough to keep her sleeping through the night. Heading off now, so good night, babe! Love you!
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